Exploring the Differences between Conscious and Unconscious Goal Pursuit

Abstract

People can be aware (conscious) or unaware (unconscious) of an active goal when making a choice. Being aware of a goal enables people to use conscious strategies to identify attributes that are relevant to goal pursuit and to assess the efficacy of the attributes of each choice alternative. For most people, this process encourages the choice of the most goal-consistent alternative. For some people, this process encourages the consideration of trade-offs, activates a competing goal, and encourages the choice of a goal-inconsistent alternative. With unconscious goal pursuit, people cannot devote resources to assessing the efficacy of the attributes of each alternative; therefore, they match the accessible goal to the attributes of the available alternatives. As a result, the unconscious selects an alternative with attributes that are consistent with the goal and not necessarily the alternative that is most efficacious for the goal. The authors investigate these processes by manipulating the conscious system's ability to assess the efficacy of product attributes and the unconscious system's ability to match the accessible goal to product attributes.

Self‐control: Information, priorities, and resources

“…Goals have a direct influence on people's ability to exert self‐control (Laran, Janiszewski, & Salerno, ). This influence is so important that many times self‐control and goal pursuit are seen as the same thing.…”

How to Study Consciousness in Consumer Research, A Commentary on Williams and Poehlman

“…We recommend researchers interested in studying awareness to consult the original publications for more in-depth discussion of the different criteria. Here we will exemplify these criteria by considering the use of funneled debriefing protocols, one of the most frequently used methods to assess awareness of a priming procedure (e.g., Chartrand et al 2008;Dalton and Huang 2014;Fitzsimons, Chartrand, and Fitzsimons 2008;Laran, Janiszewski, and Salerno 2016;Sweldens, van Osselaer, and Janiszewski 2010;Tuk et al 2009;Wheeler and Berger 2007). Typically, a series of questions of increasing specificity is presented, ranging, for example, from "please guess the real purpose of the study," over "did you see a connection between the first and second part of this session," to "did you see a connection between the words in the first task?…”

“…To demonstrate, for example, that a goal priming effect occurs without awareness of the primed construct, questions should be targeted on that construct. Say the priming manipulation consists of a lexical decision task featuring selfcontrol related words (e.g., Laran et al, 2016, Study 1). The awareness check should then assess whether participants were aware that the task contained self-control related words.…”

“…Popular approaches to ensure information has been presented 'without awareness' include presenting critical information in a hidden format, for example by mixing target words in between filler items in scrambled sentence tasks or word search puzzles (e.g., Laran et al 2016;Tuk et al 2009) or by presenting information subliminally (e.g., Chartrand et al 2008;Dedonder et al, 2014;Fitzsimons et al 2008;Galli and Gorn 2011;Stahl et al 2016). …”

Effect of Unconscious Goal Priming on Athletes’ Self-Confidence

“…Compared with conscious goal priming, unconscious goal priming does not require the individual to participate consciously. It benefits individuals with lower mental toughness through its unique advantages [31,46]. Secondly, unconscious goal priming may satisfy different needs and possesses flexibility and adaptability to different contexts [25].…”